In Conversation With Harpers
Harpers began as a series of exchanged emails between vocalist Jacob Beck and bassist Chris Riding encircling encouragement and their love for music. Subsequently, Jacob and Chris relocated from New York and Texas to Provo, Utah where they released their first, self-titled EP in 2017, accompanied by fellow musicians: Brady Henrie, Liam Christenson, and Parker Ynchausti. Harpers’ music tips towards a modulated 60s aura, borrowing styles and themes from bands like The Beach Boys, resulting in a halting ruminative delivery that makes way for an enthralling, silvery sound.
Recently, Salt Lily Magazine sat down with Jacob Beck, Brady Henrie and Josh Snider to talk about their new single.
How did you guys start playing music together?
We all met through the local scene. Brady and I met at an open mic the week Brady moved to Utah. Josh joined the band more recently-- he was working in the studio we recorded at as a sound engineer. We had met before but he hadn’t really been interested in playing in the band until we spent time together recording.
What inspired the band's sound?
Stylistically I think we pull from a lot of 60s and 70s psychedelic rock. Brady is into a lot of spaghetti western guitar stuff and I think that comes through, too. The sound on this album was all about energy and rawness somewhat out of necessity. We only had a handful of days to record so we tracked all the core parts, bass, drums, guitars, keys, lead vocals live to tape and did overdubs on the fly. We had to move fast but I think it played to our benefit.
What is your usual song writing process?
It’s always different. With the last single, “By and By”, I wrote it during a bit of a writing drought. And because I hadn’t written anything good in a while it felt like every time I sat down to write I would feel self-imposed pressure to write a song good enough to take to the band-- which was not conducive to just having fun and writing something I liked. So to try to get myself to worry less about the end product and just enjoy writing, I started recording one minute of music a day- not songs, really, just one minute of a verse or riff or something. So this song started as one of my one minute songs and I liked it so I frankensteined it to another one minute song and finished it. Our new single, “Shine on Me Again” that is coming out on Friday (9/4), I wrote really quickly-- like in 45 minutes or an hour or so.
Do you have any message or question that you are trying to get through to the audience?
With “By and By”, I wanted it to feel like a grand opening. It's the first single and first track on the album for that reason. The album as a whole does have more of a theme or message. I think it deals a lot with shifting belief systems and seeing things from a perspective that challenges your old way of thinking
What is it like debuting an album during a pandemic?
Debuting music during the pandemic and everything else going on has been tricky. Our original release date was March 13th, which would have been awful. Not only would we have not been able to promote the album by playing shows, but I think we would have rushed a lot of stuff and some of the songs would have even sounded a little different if we released it at that point. So mostly we are just grateful we pumped the brakes a little. Not playing shows sucks but we are optimistic and we have been trying to be productive with other things-- even started work on album two.
How is your upcoming album different from other things you’ve released before?
The stuff we put out before always felt like it lacked the energy of our live shows. By tracking the album the way we did I think we captured the energy and feel of the band. Especially when compared to our first EP that I released before the band was really a band and I had tracked everything myself. I think having a producer made a big difference too. Joshua [James] really was great to work with and helped us cut the fat off and get to the good parts of our sound. It’s so nice to have someone outside the band who can help you move on to the next song and not get stuck in overdub land.
What do you want your audience to get out of your music?
We kind of took our time putting out our first album and the last 6 months have been pretty quiet. So I hope people feel how we are excited to be a band and beyond excited to be releasing music we are really proud of. I want people to feel how we feel, like this album is just a jumping off point.
Do you guys have any exciting projects/shows coming up?
No shows yet. We are hoping to get on the road this spring. In other news we are writing some new songs I am really excited about. And “Shine on Me Again” will come out this Friday. We haven’t really been promoting it too much, but it’s happening!
Where do you guys hope to see yourself in the next five years?It’s so hard to think about the future right now. But we are looking to start touring as soon as it’s safe again. The pandemic has left us with a lot of bottled up energy and I think the other guys and I are all feeling ready to hustle and play as much as we can when this passes. The past six months have been a roller coaster and at times it has been discouraging, but I think more than anything right now we are feeling a renewed desire to just keep doing what we want to do and see what that leads to.
Harpers’ new single will be released September 4th. Meanwhile, you can check out their music here.
